Prospects of Agrarian Populism and Food Sovereignty Movement in Post‐Socialist Romania
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Hajdu, Anna; Mamonova, Natalia Article — Published Version Prospects of Agrarian Populism and Food Sovereignty Movement in Post-Socialist Romania Sociologia Ruralis Provided in Cooperation with: Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale) Suggested Citation: Hajdu, Anna; Mamonova, Natalia (2020) : Prospects of Agrarian Populism and Food Sovereignty Movement in Post-Socialist Romania, Sociologia Ruralis, ISSN 1467-9523, Wiley, Hoboken, Vol. 60, Iss. 4, pp. 880-904, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soru.12301 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/225066 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ www.econstor.eu Prospects of Agrarian Populism and Food Sovereignty Movement in Post- Socialist Romania Anna Hajdu* and Natalia Mamonova Abstract Progressive agrarian populism and food sovereignty have recently been discussed as having the potential to erode the right-wing populist agitation that is currently widespread in rural areas. However, these ideas are unpopular in post-socialist Eastern Europe. This paper studies the Romanian ‘new peasant’ movement ‘Eco Ruralis’ – a member organisation of La Vía Campesina. It argues that there is a critical mismatch between the progressive objectives of Eco Ruralis and the main worries of villagers in Romania. It also demonstrates the ways in which communist legacies influence societal attitudes towards capitalism and socialism, making the adoption of La Vía Campesina’s anti-capitalist and pro-socialist ideologies problematic. Finally, it shows that the concept of ‘food sovereignty’ can be misleading, as this concept is alien to the Romanian countryside. Instead, we reveal that other sustainable practices, such as seed sovereignty, are more culturally appropriate and may play an important role in eroding right-wing sentiments in the countryside. Keywords agrarian populist movements, Eastern Europe, food sovereignty, La Vía Campesina, right-wing populism, social movements Introduction here is an on-going global revival of far-right, nationalist, conservative po- Tlitical movements, many of which have found support in the countryside. Indeed, rural and suburban voters have backed the recent entries of right-wing political parties into national parliaments (Scoones et al. 2018). Recent studies on right-wing populism in rural areas have tried to explain the growing rural support © 2020 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Rural Sociology This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 60, Number 4, October 2020 DOI: 10.1111/soru.12301 POPULISM, NEOLIBERALISM AND AGRARIAN MOVEMENTS 881 for populism and to find progressive solutions to these dangerous trends (Strijker et al. 2015; Borras 2018, 2019; Scoones et al. 2018; Mamonova and Franquesa 2020). These studies have concluded that rural communities have been the most affected by both the crisis of globalised capitalism and the crisis of representative democracies, making rural voters receptive to right-wing populist agitation and propaganda. As a solution to this trend, Borras (2018, 2019) has suggested fostering agrarian populism in the form of a food sovereignty movement. He has argued that agrarian populism ‘holds the potential to radicalize the discourse, erode right-wing populist agitation, and advance a more promising progressive alternative’ (Borras 2018, p. 15). Agrarian (food sovereignty) movements have established a strong presence in the Global South. The international peasant movement La Vía Campesina has emerged as a major promoter of food sovereignty. However, the ideas of agrarian populism and food sovereignty have not found fertile ground in the Global North, particularly in post-socialist Eastern Europe (Higgins 2015). This study aims to understand the constraints and prospects of agrarian popu- lism (and food sovereignty) in Eastern Europe, considering the case of Eco Ruralis – the association of peasant men and women in Romania. Eco Ruralis unites various family farmers, organic producers, rural and urban gardeners, and agricultural activ- ists. Together, they advocate and employ sustainable, peasant-like farming practices and lifestyles, which they contrast with the agriculture conducted by large farms and agribusiness. Eco Ruralis is one of the few Eastern European members of La Vía Campesina and can be characterised as a progressive agrarian populist movement. Romania is currently experiencing a rise in populist, socially conservative, reli- giously dogmatic, and nationalist sentiments and politics1 (Țăranu and Nicolescu 2017; Buzasu 2019; Dima 2019). Rural areas and small towns have become the bas- tions of this conservative turn, as was indicated by the results of the same-sex mar- riage vote in the recent ‘Family Referendum’ (Bursa 2018) and the electoral support for the conservative ‘illiberal’ agenda of the ruling Social Democratic Party (Paun 2019). Similar xenophobic and nationalist tendencies existed in Eastern Europe and Romania in the interwar period. Some scholars have raised concerns that the dis- course of Romania’s political parties and domestic media shows signs of a return to the fascist movements of the interwar period (Bucur 2004; Frusetta and Glont 2009). This paper investigates how Eco Ruralis mobilises diverse rural groups and pro- motes a progressive agenda in the current challenging environment. In particular, it examines how Eco Ruralis articulates an agrarian populist discourse of ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’, engages in political and ideological debates, and deals with societal scepticism towards food sovereignty and other grand mobilising schemes. The paper analyses an agrarian populist movement in a conservative, post-socialist setting and explores how past legacies influence societal politics and perceptions related to agrarian populism. Our research contributes to the literature on agrarian populism and food sover- eignty in three ways. First, it reveals a critical mismatch between the progressive (but somewhat abstract) objectives of the agrarian populist movement Eco Ruralis and the main worries of rural residents. This mismatch results in a division between ‘Us’ (the ‘new peasants’ – members of the movement) and ‘The rest’ (the majority of rural © 2020 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Rural Sociology Sociologia Ruralis, Vol 60, Number 4, October 2020 882 HAJDU AND MAMONOVA population). This mismatch then limits the potential for the agrarian populism of Eco Ruralis to erode right-wing sentiments in the countryside. Second, this study demon- strates that the communist legacies influence societal attitudes towards capitalism and socialism. The influence of such legacies on public attitudes creates additional obstacles and ambiguity in introducing La Vía Campesina’s anti-capitalist, pro-social- ist discourse and ideology in post-socialist settings, such as that of Romania. Finally, this study shows that the concept of ‘food sovereignty’ can be misleading and should not be universally applied. Instead, the study reveals that other sustainable practices (such as seed sovereignty in Romania) may be more culturally appropriate and could regenerate a sense of belonging and restore local identity. Their potential to bring a renewed sense of belonging and identity means that these practices could be import- ant elements in eroding the nationalist, xenophobic, exclusionary sentiments seen in the countryside. The paper is structured as follows: The next section presents the study’s method- ology. After this, a section introduces the study’s theoretical framework and provides background information. The empirical sections are organised around the main fea- tures of agrarian populism: ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ discourse, political orientation, capi- talist versus socialist ideology, and use of food sovereignty as a mobilising tool. The final section provides a discussion about the relevance of this study to other contexts. Studying agrarian populism in Romania This research is the